Several hours had passed and the light of the sun was already dimming. Here in wintertime the days didn't last as long and the sun would be setting soon. A small flurry of snow had also come and gone, the fresh flakes not quite replenishing the layer of white covering the cobblestone roads. It was quiet for a major city as well, the people here already settling down for the night it seemed.

I had been sitting outside the temple for around half an hour now, my little body hunched over sitting on one of the large steps leading up to the main doors. My elbows were on my knees as I leaned over and propped my up head with my hands. So I sat deep in thought, my faithful new high priest leaning up against the wall behind me.

These past few hours I had spent learning all about several of the goddesses they had documented here in the museum. Of course their information on display was hardly going to be perfectly accurate and their list not exhaustive. There was no mention of me either with no one working here ever having heard of a goddess with my portfolio. At one point there had been a goddess of light, though her name was lost to the passing of time.

One of the most interesting goddesses for me was Varia: Goddess of Darkness, Fools, and The Lost. Being of darkness would make her opposite to me of course, but it was fascinating to see she was the reverse in more ones than just that. "The lost" part of her portfolio had to do with people who were lost in any capacity. If you were an outcast from society, mentally handicapped and lost intellectually, and even lost in the literal sense in the wilderness. These were the people that prayed to her for salvation. The other part about "fools" seemed from the information presented refer to jesters or clowns, the court fool. The ones whose smiles make light of the world, their laughs daggers into the illusion of a happy existence.

Another one that was less interesting was Veshka: Goddess of Fire and Lightning. She was apparently your typical "fire and brimstone from heaven upon your town as judgment" sort of goddess. According to the museum's records she really didn't get along with many other goddesses as one would expect from her fiery temper. However like fire she had great warmth and comfort for her worshipers and defended them with bolts of levin from on high. Not someone you wanted to mess with as she also was a fully grown goddess.

The last one that really stood out to me was another child goddess like myself, though interestingly not quite as young. While I appeared as a nine year old this one was more like a ten or eleven year old child. Her name was Aldaney: Goddess of War. A master of every weapon known who could summon spectral versions at will to maneuver through the air without even touching them. She also could summon mystical red versions of animals associated with war like wolves, horses, and crows. Apparently she was also pretty smart: a master tactician and a proud warrior with a code of honor she strictly adhered to.

Now as to what happened to these goddesses no one really knew for surely certain. Allegedly from the tales passed down Aldaney was imprisoned somewhere, but where no one knew. Varia was killed by another goddess and her followers scattered. Then for Veshka no one really knew what happened to her, but she did just up and disappear one day.

There were a few other goddesses mentioned but some of them didn't have their names known or were just so generic I didn't bother too much with them. Its not like I'd be meeting them anyway. At least hopefully I wouldn't. If for some reason one of them reappeared its not like super outdated and potentially incorrect information in a human museum would help that much anyway.

"Hey goddess."

Timothy's voice shook me free from my deep reflection. It actually surprised me and made me jump a little. To recover my image I sat up straight and put my arms out to prop myself up on the stone ground. I lifted my head high and flicked my hair.

"Yes priest?"

Timothy snuffled his feet. "Well erm. You've been sitting there quite a while goddess. Is everything alright?"

I sighed and then smiled. It was cute that he cared. Come to think of it, if he was going to be my high priest I should probably let the crown know. Before night fell I should take him over to the castle and introduce him to the king.

"I'm fine Timothy. In fact I was just thinking about you."

"About me?" Timothy seemed surprised and a little embarrassed.

With another smile I stood up and turned around to face him, my hands on my hips as my hair swooshed back behind me.

"That's right! I was thinking why not introduce you to the king real quick? It's going to be nightfall soon and its important everyone knows who my high priest is right?"

He stumbled backwards and into the wall. His face was quite frightened and he held up his hands in front of him in protest.

"No no miss goddess Jenna ma'am! That surely won't be necessary! Why would he want to meet me anyway?"

As he spoke I had begun walking towards him, forcing him to stand with his back fully to the wall. There was nowhere else for to him to go though as I had him cornered.

Timothy let out a small yelp as I reached for him. "Goddess wait!"

With a deep sigh I dropped my grasping hands and tilted my hips to the side in an annoyed pose.

"What is it Timtim?"

Feeling whatever was immediately going to happen to him was paused he let out his held breath and relaxed some. Now that his goddess was giving him time to speak he thought for a few more moments before coming up with his excuse.

"Well you see goddess" he began. He was avoiding eye contact. "If I'm not home at a decent hour my father will worry about me. Also I'm really awkward in front of important people. I've never even met the king! I'd have no idea what to do or say."

A light bit of laughter escaped me as I put both my hands on my hips and straightened out my posture. I looked him up and down with a little grin on my face.

"Yeah I know you are. Why do you think I like you?"

This brought a blush to his face which he immediately tried to hide.

"As for the kingy king boy" I continued. "Let me deal with him. You wont have to say much, if anything at all." I brought my left hand up to look at my fingernails. "He's a bit of an ass. I don't like him and am more than ready to put him in his place if needed."

Timothy looked me over and seemed a bit less concerned now. He however did look up at the rooftops of all the buildings and over to the castle.

"The castle is across the city though goddess. How are we going to get there? Are you going to grow to your normal size and carry me there? Won't that frighten people this late in the day?"

It was a good point actually and made me think for a moment. Maybe instead I could do that superhero thing and carry him in my arms. This thought brought a sly grin to my face. Yeah.

"Don't worry" I finally replied. "I've got an idea."

As I spoke I walked up to him and took hold of his torso. This made him yelp and squirm a bit.

"Eek! H-Hey that tickles!"

With a sigh I held him still. "Now now child. Trust your goddess will you?"

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This reminder seemed to get him to relax and he settled down with a nod of his head. That allowed me to scoop him up into my arms like a child. It did look a bit awkward considering how he was like twice my size, but due to my strength holding him wasn't an issue.

"You might want to close your eyes now" I said looking down at him.

He looked up at me with confusion and nervousness. "Why's that goddess?"

Without answering I quickly walked to the edge of the staircase of the temple and looked up at the sky. Then with a flex of my legs I jumped into the air. This time I controlled my strength so I didn't fly off into the sky, thought it did get us well over the height of the rooftops. I whizzed through the air, the wind whipping my hair behind me as I soared above.

Timothy let out a panicked scream as I achieved liftoff, the thought of flying like a bird over the streets of course unfathomable to him. He didn't quite panic however as he was with his goddess. So instead he clung unto me quite tightly like a frightened toddler.

My eyes lit up in a bright glow as I used magic to summon strong gusts of wind behind me to push us further than my jump alone would have carried us. A strong gust of wind was also summoned to help my first landing be softer. Thus with the help of magic the first touchdown on the roof of a townhome was so gentle one might not even have noticed if they weren't looking at me.

As we landed and I crouched in preparation for my next jump I smiled at Timothy in my arms.

"By the way. I'd love to meet your dad sometime."

He looked into my eyes with surprise. "W-Why would you want to do that g-godde- Yieee!"

He was cut off by his own squeal of panic when we took off again. The rushing wind returning as we flew through the air again. Below us the streets and buildings were like a blur, the cold air fluttering our clothing. Thus jump after jump we traveled to the front gates of the castle. Then with one final jump we went over the wall and stunned guards to land in the main courtyard.

I set down my passenger and noticed he was shivering. All that cold air travel probably chilled him to the bone. Its easy for me to forget about such things due to my own body being immune to extreme temperatures. Poor thing.

With gentle hands I reached out to touch him. "Come here."

Timothy was shivering pretty badly and was in no state to protest much. He allowed me to do whatever I wanted to him, his trust in me both cute and touching.

I put my hands directly on his stomach. "Hmmm.... Be warmed."

Summoning the warmth of a summer day I pushed some of my mana into him as heat. The effects were immediate and according to plan. It seemed his entire body got all toasty as his internal temperature rose back to normal levels. He stopped shivering and gasped down at me.

"Wow goddess!" he said with excitement. "I don't feel cold anymore at all! A-Also that trip really was amazing. I mean it was scary but also exhilarating! You really are amazing goddess."

This made me smirk again as I removed my hands. "I know I am."

This was when our uninvited guests interrupted us. There had been a pair of guards on duty here on ground level inside the castle curtain wall of course and they had noticed us landing as it was obvious. Their approach wasn't a surprise to me as I could sense them using the goddess zone as they ran over.

They had both reached us now and were looking at us both in confusion and concern. It seemed they recognized my appearance but understandably wouldn't be sure it actually was the massive goddess that stomped through their town before. As for Timothy they wouldn't have any idea who he was regardless.

"Hey you two!" said the older of the two. "You can't be here!"

He was sort of middle aged, probably close to retirement. His partner was much younger and was seeming to let his elder take the lead. They were probably happy to break up the monotony of standing guard in the middle of winter anyway.

He held his right hand on his sword hilt and continued.

"You there. Those robes. You're from the temple aren't you? Is this your younger sister or something?"

Before Timothy could answer I turned fully to face the guards and put my hands on my hips. Then without saying anything I spread my feet apart and disengaged my tiny size magic. In the matter of a few moments I grew to my full goddess size of two-hundred feet and loomed over the men and the castle itself. My eyes began glowing and I just grinned down at them as my feet began sinking into the street and cracking the stones.

Both of the guards had the immediate response to start backing up with terror in their expressions. They stammered and sputtered fearing for their lives. Timothy for his part was frantically looking back and forth between my massive feet as if they could come down on him at any moment.

Then just as quickly as it had happened I reengaged my shrinking magic and shrunk back down to my human child size. My eyes stopped glowing and my grin changed into an expression of expectation. Once again I was standing in front of Timothy and I crossed my arms over my chest as I waited expectantly.

The guards seemed to come to their senses and stopped backing up, though they were clearly still scared of me. It was obvious to them who I was now and they were literally shaking in their boots.

"H-Hello g-great goddess" the older one said once he found his voice. "What b-brings you to the castle again s-so soon?"

With my face now properly recognized I smiled smugly and ran my left hand through my hair. It was like I was passing it off as nothing strange or frightening had just happened. Of course to me it hadn't and being dismissive of them was kinda fun.

"Well I'm here to see the king actually. Where is he?"

The two guards looked nervously at each other and then the younger one spoke.

"The k-king is currently getting ready to turn in early for the night. He really s-shouldn't be disturbed. He'd be so very angry..."

I let out a long sigh and dropped my arms to my sides. Maybe this time I wouldn't interrupt him. I'd like to at least try to have positive relations with the royalty.

"Of course he is. I wanted to introduce my high priest to him though." I turned to Timothy. "Well I guess we'll just have to settle for this for now."

After I spoke I took several steps to the side and lifted up my fingers in front of my face like one would when holding a camera. Then I put my fingers in the classic shape of a vertical rectangle and got Timothy's upper body in frame. Once I thought the image was good and he was looking at me in confusion I flexed my index finger.

"Click!"

Once I had finished I walked back over to Timothy who was currently very confused. The guards had just been watching in their own bewilderment as my actions of course would be completely foreign to all of them.

"What was that about goddess?" Timothy asked looking down at me.

I was currently shaking my hands out in front of me as if invigorating a polaroid which only confused them futher. In response to his question I lifted my left hand to silence him.

"Quiet. Its almost done developing."

Then as the three watched on in shock I flipped my hands around one last time. Using magic to manifest items was already easy enough for me so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do that with pictures either. I already could make whatever I wanted appear in my books. So with the image of Timothy still in mind I brought into existence a small eight by three photograph of him on waxed paper. It was even in color which was pretty cool.

Timothy looked down at the picture in my hands and gasped in amazement.

"I-Its me!"

"Yes it is you!" I replied as if to a child. "Its called a photograph."

With the photo in hand I walked over to the two guards who were still very frightened to be around me. At first they stepped back as I walked towards them but a frown from me got them to stop moving so I could approach them. Once I was close enough I held out the photo and nodded my head at it.

"Here take it."

The older one reached out nervously and took the photo in his hands. Both of them then leaned in over it to gasp and wonder.

I continued as they marveled at it. "Take this picture to the king immediately upon his waking. In fact show it to everyone in the court. This is Timothy and he's my high priest. Its very important everyone knows who he is and that he's not to be fuckled with. Understand?"

Both the guards looked up at me and looked like they were about to protest it. Dealing with the king was probably scary enough as it was and I can't imagine having a goddess and king potentially angry at you was very fun.

"Now now..." I said raising my hand to stop them before they could speak. "This is a very important task I'm giving you. I know the king might not be very kind but this is a mission given to you by the goddess herself. Make sure to tell anyone who questions you that. I'm sure this photo is proof enough something magical is at play anyway. Can I trust you with this?"

My words seemed to help the guards relax and feel comfortable around me a little. It was super convenient to have a god to blame for things after all. It was fine to pass responsibility onto me for now. Both of them then stood up straight and saluted me.

"Understood great Goddess Jenna!" the older one said.

I nodded and clapped my hands. "Good! It's not like I'm going to put you in a guillotine if you fail or anything. But don't fail ok?"

They both looked at me in confusion.

"Guillotine?" the younger one asked.

The implications of telling them what that actually was and its affect on the world as a whole suddenly entered my mind. It would be a repeat of the revolution in the country it was invented it and it would be heavily abused.

I looked them both over. "Yeah I'm definitely not telling you."

Thankfully they didn't protest and simply nodded. Then with the photo tucked away inside the older one's winter coat the both of them bowed and dismissed themselves. I watched them both walk back to their post. I'd have to still monitor them for a while with the goddess zone to make sure they did what I asked but I had little reason to doubt. They were both my worshipers now after all.

Timothy then walked up next to me and looked down.

"So um what now goddess? I guess that's taken care of right?"

I nodded and turned to face him.

"Yup! Now I'll take you back to the temple and let you get on with your day. I have some things to do off in my hometown but I'll be relying on you to help spread the word of my magnificence."

He looked at his feet nervously. "Are we traveling the same way as before?"

"Mhm!" I replied with a smirk. "Best brace yourself."